Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By KEVIN GRAHAMPoets take on social ills and personal pain during the the Black on Black Rhyme poetry slam competition.
TAMPA - Two false starts, and Mitchelle Ray left the stage.
The words didn't come. The rhymes wouldn't flow.
"It's okay!" someone shouted.
"We're family," another voice said. "Try one more time."
The petite Blake High School sophomore held her head high and returned to the microphone.
"They say the best years of my life is my childhood," she began. "But how can I even enjoy that when the weight of the world sits on my shoulders? ... I fear for my generation. Hearing gunshots go off in the middle of the night. Being offered a blunt at 9 years old, while standing at the bus stop at 6 in the morning."
At 15, Ray was one of the youngest poets at Black on Black Rhyme's poetry slam competition Tuesday night. She drew from the crowd's encouragement to muster the strength to deliver her message.
"Never let them see you sweat," she said later.
The event was part of this year's fifth annual Tampa Bay Black Heritage Festival, which began Sunday and lasts through Monday. Of 10 poets, the top five from Tuesday's slam advanced to a semifinal round Wednesday to compete against the top five from a preliminary round last week. The finalists from Wednesday's competition will battle it out Friday at Faze 2 Lounge, 2807 E Busch Blvd., where the previous competitions have taken place. Friday's final begins at 8 p.m.
About 125 people filled Faze 2 for Tuesday's preliminary slam. Five judges, selected at random from the audience, used a 10-point scale to select the winners. Each competitor recited two poems.
Carlos Anthony, 40, of Tampa, read a poem, To Pass Out of Existence, that he wrote after the abduction and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia of Sarasota.
"Nine months you carried," the poem began. "I hear your word. Gender won't matter. As long as it's healthy ... Why have vigils and cry like you care? Change your laws. Every child murderer gets to live his life."
Anthony works with Big Brothers Big Sisters and said he "felt for the family" after hearing about Carlie's slaying. Like Anthony, Dennis Rodney, 26, of Tampa, recited a poem he wrote based on events happening around him. Rodney took the stage and paid tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. through a poem he wrote during King's birthday last year.
"I still dream every night," Rodney said, "because I have failed to have that dream like Martin Luther King."
A participant in last year's Black Heritage Festival slam, a poet who legally changed his name to L.I.F.E. brought his lyrics to the stage again this year.
"I went from feeding homeless people once a week, to feeding people every time I speak," said 30-year-old L.I.F.E., of Tampa.
Walter Jennings helped found Black on Black Rhyme in Tampa in September 2001.
"This is not a production that we put on once a month," he said. "This is something that has been going on weekly since September 2001."
Black on Black Rhyme, in conjunction with a group called The Conscious Party, hosts open mic poetry nights every Tuesday at Faze 2. Doors open at 8 p.m., with poets taking the stage at 9 p.m.
The finalists who perform Friday will be featured in a poetry slam workshop and performance at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland on Feb. 5. For more information, visit www.blackonblackrhyme.com
Kevin Graham can be reached at kgraham@sptimes.com or 813 226-3433.